TORONTO — The artist’s rendering is attractive – a modern building all glass, concrete and cubic shapes. The plans are drawn up, and there’s even a showroom to give people a look at what the proposed new Sherman Campus will look like.
But as of yet, there are no shovels in the ground. That won’t happen for another two years.
When it does, it will mark 10 years since UJA Federation of Greater Toronto announced plans to tear down the old Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (BJCC), located between Sheppard and Finch avenues, and replace it with a more up-to-date facility. It will also mark eight years since the BJCC was actually torn down.
As well, it will begin construction of a much less ambitious facility. Back in 2007, before the 2008 recession hit the pocketbooks of potential donors, the replacement building was forecast to cost around $100 million. The edifice on the drawing board today will cost $65 million and be 30,000 square feet smaller than the earlier proposed community centre, said Carol Seidman, director of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.
In addition to the smaller scale, the new building won’t have underground parking and won’t house the Koffler Centre for the Arts, which used to be part of the old BJCC campus. The centre has already found a new home, in a downtown location on Shaw Street, she noted.
What the new building will have is 90,000 square feet of space. It “will include a full-service, state-of-the-art Prosserman JCC, including a sports complex with a gymnasium, a fitness centre, an indoor running track, indoor and outdoor aquatic centres featuring salt-water pools, as well as the vision of a new Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre,” Seidman and Morris Zbar, CEO of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, said in an email response to CJN questions.
“A 21st-century Leah Posluns Theatre will be built and embedded in the new community centre. It will be a multi-functional space,” she added.
Zbar expressed confidence that federation will be able to raise the money needed to build the new facility.
“UJA Federation’s Tomorrow Campaign has raised $17 million for Sherman Campus Phase 2 and needs to raise another $48 million to complete Phase 2. We have what we strongly believe are attainable fundraising objectives,” he said.
In 2007, when the federation announced plans to tear down the BJCC and put up the Sherman Campus, it was felt the old building had to be replaced.
“The original structure was tired, unsafe and no longer able to accommodate today’s interests. A major renovation would have cost more than to tear it down,” Seidman said.
But around the time the old BJCC was demolished, the global economy thwarted fundraising plans. “The decision to demolish the old BJCC was made right before the global economic downturn. It took a number of years to get the market to recoup, and we are confident that we can now move ahead with our fundraising efforts,” Seidman said.
Over the years, the federation announced plans to begin building. It even set start and end dates for construction, but those deadlines came and went.
According to Seidman, “UJA Federation’s Tomorrow Campaign agenda was overly ambitious and focused on three developments at the same time. There was an urgency to focus on Lebovic Campus and the completion of the TanenbaumCHAT Kimel Family Education Centre [in Vaughan]. Then there was some softening in the economic market. We are now 100 per cent focused on completing Phase 2 of Sherman Campus.”
Phase 1 included upgrades to the Lipa Green Centre for Jewish Community Services, which houses UJA Federation headquarters, offices of many of its constituent agencies, the Ontario Jewish Archives Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre and the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.
Phase 1 also included construction of the Donald Gales Family Pavilion, which houses offices and programs of the Prosserman JCC, as well as a fitness centre, aerobics studios and a daycare.
Zbar believes that despite the passage of time from the BJCC’s demolition to the forecast opening of the rebuilt centre, the community will flock to the new facility. “There are 65,000 Jews living in the Sherman Campus catchment area. This number represents 20 per cent of the entire Jewish population of Canada,” he said.
“This future community centre will attract past members who are waiting to reconnect with the JCC they once knew and loved, as well as younger members would be proud to belong to a state-of-the-art facility that will offer so much,” Seidman said.
